Pans are known for baking the type of bread known as pan loaf on an industrial scale. These pans comprise a plurality of baking moulds and, in many cases, a plate acting as a cover of the pan.
Said plate acting as a cover is placed to avoid the upper part of the bread from becoming convex and thus obtaining, insofar as possible, a loaf of uniform square or rectangular section which is easy to handle. Nevertheless, it has been observed that, in practice, despite the use of the cover, the existing pans obtain a loaf which has many irregularities or bulges on its surface.
During the baking process of the pan loaf on an industrial scale, said pans are displaced empty along chains until reaching the production chain where the raw bread dough falls inside the moulds. Next, the pans are covered with said plate acting as a cover and they enter the fermentation process.
Once the dough has fermented, the pans enter the oven to bake the dough. During baking it is necessary to maintain the pans covered to guarantee the square form of the bread. However, during baking the bread dough may displace the plate that serves as a cover. To prevent the raising of the plate, it is typical to use plates or covers of a heavy weight (6 to 8 kg) which are not displaced with the thrust of the bread dough. However, these plates hinder fast heat transmission and are difficult to handle.
Fast heat transmission during the baking process is essential to avoid problems in the quality of the inner structure of the bread (if the heat is not transmitted quickly it favours the formation of air bubbles). Therefore, to achieve a fast transmission of heat during baking, it is convenient to reduce to a maximum the thickness of the plate that configures the moulds, the same as the thickness of the plate acting as a cover of the pan. Nevertheless, if the plate that configures the moulds is of little thickness the mould base will tend to easily wear during its displacement on the industry's transport chains. On the other hand, if the plate acting as a cover is of little thickness, this plate moves during the baking of the bread preventing a loaf of uniform section from being obtained.
To avoid wear of the pan, it is typical to resort to reinforcing structures that laterally cover the pan and give it resistance. However, these reinforcing structures also hinder the uniform transmission of heat in certain areas, which translates into a less homogeneous baking which negatively affects obtaining a regular shaped loaf.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to have a light pan which guarantees fast baking and obtaining a loaf with uniform section, which was resistant and easy to handle.